Our #WILDFundraiser campaign is all about fundraising in a way that suits you! We want everyone to be able to be a part of nature's recovery. This year we’ve had a wonderful range of fundraising efforts, each as unique as our WILD Fundraisers. This year, our WILD Fundraisers have raised a whopping £22,000 for Welsh wildlife! We want to give a huge thank you to all our WILD Fundraisers. Their commitment and dedication to fundraising, helps us to create a wilder future!

Our WILD Fundraisers 

It’s been a pleasure to work with WILD Fundraisers new and old this year. John has been fundraising for the Trust for several years. He uses his beautiful images of South Wales to create calendars which he sells to raise money for the Trust along with other charities. Last year he raised over £1000, and he is hoping to match it again this year!

Imogen is one of our youngest and most dedicated WILD Fundraisers, who has been fundraising for us since 2020. Her 2022 fundraising journey involved 4-day adventure where she cycled from Stackpole to Green Bridge, walked around the Marloes peninsular, and abseiled at Porth Clais! Her action-packed WILD Fundraiser helped her to raise over £400 this year, bringing her fundraising total to incredible £1020! The money she has raised will go to buy new survey equipment for Skomer Island, which will help to monitor the beautiful birds, bats and moths that live on the island.

Michelle and Ben, wanted to give to give back to place they love at their wedding. Instead of asking for gifts they asked their guests to donate to the WTSWW to support their local wild spaces and offset the emissions from their celebration. Thanks to the generosity of Michelle, Ben and their guests, they raised an amazing £1,265.86! Michelle and Ben said, "We chose to support WTSWW because we care passionately about the future of our natural world. We wanted to be married in South Wales and to spend our honeymoon in West Wales because we love the environment so much in these places. Supporting the Trust via fundraising in lieu of wedding gifts is just a small way to give back to a place we love and will continue to enjoy."

In August, David & Amanda took on an incredible challenge, swimming 9km around our Skomer Island reserve. As experienced endurance swimmers, they wanted to use this 3-hour challenge to highlight the importance of the work on Skomer and marine conservation. Their Great Skomer Swim raised an impressive £3026.25, which has been donated towards the conservation work of the island’s wildlife. 

The talent and creativity of our WILD Fundraisers never fails to amaze us! Laurent has produced a beautiful book all about his favourite seabird, the puffin, and has raised a remarkable £1600 from the sales of the book. Professional photographers Drew Buckley and Richard Peters generously donated 20 of their stunning photography prints, worth over £1500, to brighten up our hostel on Skomer Island. Laurent, Drew and Richard’s gorgeous photos capture the beauty of the island and the animals that live there, and in turn have helped to support Skomer’s precious wildlife.

Madison worked closely with many of our WILD Fundraisers in her role as Digital Fundraising Officer. She took on her own fundraising challenge before leaving the role to start her PHD in Cornwall. Madi took on the Port Talbot Half Marathon and raised an amazing £890, which has been donated towards our work to connect and protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030.

Our Community WILD Fundraisers 

At The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, we love to work with communities who want to create positive change. This year we’ve had the pleasure of working with Ridge Runners. They are a not-for-profit group passionate about connecting people to wild spaces and organising races that have don't hurt the planet. Their recent Machen Race involved over 100 runners, who ran through scenic countryside, forests, and mountains, and helped to bring their fundraising total to £500 for the year!

We were lucky to receive a generous donation from the organisers of the The William Condry Memorial Lecture. The annual event brings together hundreds of naturalists and conservationists from all over Wales. This year's lecture was given by Mike Alexander, who was a warden on Skomer Island for 10 years and is now the Chair of Trustees for The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales. Instead of accepting a fee for his talk, Mike kindly asked the £325 to be donated towards the conservation of wildlife on Skomer Island.

Our Corporate WILD Fundraisers 

We love partnering with businesses that have a passion for protecting Welsh wildlife. This year we’ve worked with a range of sustainably-minded businesses, from cafés to cheesemakers, and Christmas cracker makers!  

This Spring, The Secret Garden Café joined us a Corporate WILD Fundraiser. Mel and her team are passionate about protecting pollinators and donate 10p for every takeaway drink sold to support our work managing wildflower areas. The cups were specially designed by local artists at Patternistas, to celebrate our beautiful local flowers and insects. The Secret Garden Café have raised an impressive £6700 this year! Mel said "We are over the moon with the amount we've raised, and so happy it’s going to help protect and preserve vital habitats for wildlife.

Linda from LU Ceramics also joined us a WILD Fundraiser this year. Linda is a talented potter who creates beautiful ceramics inspired by Pembrokeshire's wild landscapes. For her WILD Fundraiser, she created a series of 108 unique tea-bowls out of local Preseli clay. Linda has donated 50% of the sale of every bowl, raising a fantastic £321 this year. Linda has been one of our most proactive fundraisers, attending several Christmas Fairs to sell her bowls and raise awareness of our conservation work across Wales.

Our new Digital Fundraising Officer, Grace, did a Corporate WILD Fundraiser cross-over with her small business Conscious Crackers. Her plastic-free Christmas Crackers are designed to reduce waste and inspire action to protect the planet! With every box sold, a donation will be made to The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales to support our efforts to restore 30% of land and sea by 2030.

We’ve continued to work in partnership with local buisnesses, including Ogi, Welsh broadband providers, who raised over £500 at their 2022 workplace Raffle; as well as Teifi Cheese who are supporting our Red Squirrel Partnership through the sale of their organic cheeses. We also received generous donations from Lakeland who gave £500 towards our water vole conservation work and Share Gift who donated £5000 towards our new bird hide on Skokholm Island.

The Big Wild Walk

In October, we took part in The Wildlife Trust’s nationwide campaign ‘The Big Wild Walk’. We were joined by members of our Living Seas team and loyal volunteer Grace, who took part in the challenge as WILD Fundraisers. Together they walked an total of 310km across the Welsh countryside and coastline, raising £1020 towards our efforts to restore 30% of land and sea by 2030 for nature’s recovery.

If you’d like to raise money to protect Welsh wildlife, get in touch with Grace, our Digital Fundraising Officer, to find out how you can become a WILD Fundraiser!